Investing for Impact Lab (i4iLab)
A common challenge facing the impact investing space is connecting investors looking for projects to invest in and investment-ready projects. The i4iLab brings together the worlds of finance and development under one roof to help solve this problem.
We create expanded opportunities to mobilize private finance towards the Sustainable Development Goals (Financing the SDGs) by advancing innovative financing instruments and project structures. Too many opportunities for financing the SDGs go unfunded due to an incomplete understanding of the full social and financial potential of impact investing.
i4iLab provides the space for learning, collaboration, creating new partnerships and projects that provide better value-for-money, higher social impact, lower risks, and greater accountability: 21st century impact investing strategies to solve 21st century problems.
We provide participants with a vision for the full spectrum of impact investing modalities and their prospects (Awareness); show how to align and integrate financial instruments, project structures, partnerships, performance management systems and value creation techniques to suit the unique attributes of each project (Toolkit); and provide “learn-by-doing” assistance in actual project design, to build, finance and operate (Make it). We feature blended financing, adapted to each project’s risk profile, linked to performance metrics and measurement frameworks through transparent blockchains.
For more information and/or to learn how to participate, please email ICR Director John Forrer.
i4iLab Founding Members
George Washington University Institute for Corporate Responsibility (Washington, D.C., USA)
The George Washington University Institute for Corporate Responsibility conducts research, education, and engagement activities examining how businesses can have a positive impact on society while maintaining their competitiveness. Our goal is to help translate scholarship and practice into practical and actionable business strategies and programs. Impact investing is topic of growing interest and importance among scholars and practitioners, particularly focused on financing the SDGs. We have launched several initiatives exploring how to expand and accelerate scalable projects that will yield significant social impact and attract impact investments.
Impact Bridges Group (Toronto, Canada)
Impact Bridges Group (IBG) is involved in reducing poverty through improved efficiency and distributive justice and partnering with others to maximize the net social benefits of community development programs. IBG is a not-for-profit professional services organization focused on impact investing. IBG builds bridges with leading actors in innovative financing, management consulting, and others to improve the benefits of local and international development programs for the poor and marginalized. It also builds bridges with governments, foundations, and implementing organizations that prioritize program efficiency, thereby maximizing the impact of existing and future programs.
Incitāre (Geneva, Switzerland)
Incitāre is a "global trans-national collaborative" — an open and inclusive platform of individuals and institutions promoting strategic foresight and anticipatory leadership, brokering innovative partnerships (SDG purposed, technology enhanced, creatively financed) with accountability for transformational impact. We are driven by a sense of obligation to use our time, talent and treasure to make the world a better, safer and fairer place.
Otherdots Foundation (London, UK)
A UK foundation that aims to handpick and empower the most ambitious and brightest entrepreneurs from rural areas and emerging countries from all corners of the globe, to merge mindsets and cultures, to think the unthinkable and build startups from ground zero, that will enable financial inclusion and improve human conditions in underserved global communities. A fascinating double-bottom line initiative, the first-ever social impact fund on the blockchain, to deliver a digital identity and voice to the unbanked through inclusive mobility as a conduit for SDG Service delivery, with venture-capital returns to investors and backers.